The authority wants to reduce the department’s existing £1.8m budget by 46 per cent to £973,000 in April 2015.
At present, the majority of Hampshire’s youth services budget is given as grants to voluntary organisations, which deliver targeted youth services on behalf of the council.
However, a consultation document reveals the authority will seek to make savings in 2015/16 by scrapping services currently delivered by voluntary organisations and replacing them with a new needs-based offer.
Under the plans, the council will create 23 "youth pods" – dedicated centres where children and families support workers will provide targeted support to 11- to 19-year-olds on a range of issues, including sexual health, homelessness and mental health.
The council will also develop seven detached youth service teams to provide support in seven wards identified by a needs mapping process.
Of the proposed £973,000 budget, the majority – £535,000 – will be commissioned out as contracts to organisations that can provide targeted support to young people not in education, employment or training.
The consultation does not give full details of the breakdown of the proposed budget but does show that a further £150,000 will be used to fund the support workers, and £140,000 will fund counselling and provision for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people.
Plans to reduce the service’s spend by between £800,000 and £1.2m were first approved by the council in January this year.
Councillor Keith Mans, executive lead member for children's services, said cuts from central government have left the authority with limited resources.
He said: "In order for us to be able to continue to provide valuable support to young people, outside of our statutory obligations, we must find ways to do this differently and more efficiently – targeting the reduced funding we have available to where it is most needed."
The consultation on the plans will close on 10 December.
Hampshire’s plans mirror those of Manchester City Council’s, which is currently consulting on proposals to reduce its £1.08m Youth Fund that pays voluntary groups to deliver services for vulnerable young people.
